Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Sondra's first blog

Well, you can see that I finally figured out how to post on this blog. I needed to get on Internet Explorer to do it.

Anyhow I like this idea of being able to share things about the family. I see both Karla and Renie have shared some memories of Grandma and Grandpa Jansen.

When my brother and I were very little we lived with Grandma and Grandpa Jansen for a year or so, until my dad got out of the Navy in Star, Idaho. We moved to Longview and it wasn't long after that the rest of the family came trickling into the Kalama area. We would visit Grandma and Grandpa often. One of my fondest memories were when we would spend the night and we would wake up in the morning to Grandma whistling in the kitchen. That meant that she was making her pancakes! I will never forget that big ole iron skillet that she cooked in. Her hand was at a 90 degree angle to her arm, but she could lift that fry pan to dish out the pancakes, one at a time to each person as they got up.

One of the things I remember about taking my children to visit their Great Grandmother and Grandfather was when we got on the north side of Portland my son, Howard, told his two sisters, Janet and Kathi, that we were going to have to give Grandma and Grandpa a kiss when we got there. That is what he remembered about them from a trip he had taken up there before. He was right, every time you went to visit them, they would be waiting at the door and everyone would line up and get a hug and a kiss when you walked through the door.

Family was the most important thing to Grandma. She loved sharing stories about the family and was overjoyed when a new grandchild or great grandchild was on the way. I'm sure she felt the same when she was having her own children. She did love babies. I remember her advice to me for my new baby was when giving a baby a bath, you start at the head and wash down the body. You never start at the bottom and wash up!! As far as I can remember, that was the only advice she gave me! The rest was up to me, I guess.

I remember the one and only spanking I got from grandma. I was playing out in the back yard and had to go to the bathroom. I knew that I would not be able to make it up to the house and then up the steps to the bathroom with the toilet that set up on a pedestal with the water closet up by the ceiling with a long chain to pull to flush it. So I decided to pull down my pants in the back yard and go right there. Certainly did not want to wet my pants!! Well grandma saw me and she rushed out that door and gave me a swat on the bottom and rushed me into the house telling me that I was not to be doing that outside so the neighbors could see. She sat me in this big chair that had leather seat and back and wide wooden arms. I was so little and the chair was so big. I sat there and sniffled for quite a while. Not because the spanking hurt me, but because I had done something that grandma did not approve of and I really felt bad for doing that.

Once when Kalama was having the Strawberry Festival they had a mustache growing contest. Grandpa grew one for the contest. He liked to kid us kids with it and give us fuzzy kisses. He drank some buttermilk and got it in his mustache, on purpose I think, to tease us kids. He was trying to kiss us with buttermilk in it!!

One thing I was wondering. One Christmas grandma and grandpa gave me a couple pairs of panties that had ants printed all over them. They said I could tell people I had ants in my pants! Now did any other of my cousins get ants in their pants? Or was I just special that way?? They had a way of making us all feel special in one way or another. Some sort of special attention. That year it was ants in my pants. Maybe it was so I would not wet my pants!!